Gene Kelly's Brief Sojourn, "Let's Make Love" (1960)

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCFHDehvR9cXY8uVKrILLD5wVJPzRjlqHGdJ_RFQiWjVDouT8zVs2OdfJk3DKOtHaVb-k93fNPH-ILdgj8zYA4cYRGJDfiMVCCvXAWqD0QUfgXKBqLqlSEJ_mteFGameolAl8lPJwpzNvP/s1600/movie+title+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCFHDehvR9cXY8uVKrILLD5wVJPzRjlqHGdJ_RFQiWjVDouT8zVs2OdfJk3DKOtHaVb-k93fNPH-ILdgj8zYA4cYRGJDfiMVCCvXAWqD0QUfgXKBqLqlSEJ_mteFGameolAl8lPJwpzNvP/s400/movie+title+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The Classic Movie Blog Association is sponsoring the Gene Kelly Centennial Blogathon from August 20 - 25 and this is my contribution to the event. Please <a href="http://clamba.blogspot.com/2012/04/gene-kelly-centenarian-blogathon-august.html" style="color: #cc0000;" target="_blank">click here</a> for links to the other participating blogs.</span></span></i><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">~</div><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1960 was the year that</span></span><br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBHcvsmRtU3GLYZmXcvTuqQMCpGv0kNNjOYi-dGq5HrdScGx4BzBU3vOWJdzfwFc7fWc9syezBv0ZSEYS3emxB1gZWzYsmDpood13VeEDw6ea-Zn-gQMMCqzmKvsJPliU1qWpXg9mP6c6S/s1600/echo+I.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBHcvsmRtU3GLYZmXcvTuqQMCpGv0kNNjOYi-dGq5HrdScGx4BzBU3vOWJdzfwFc7fWc9syezBv0ZSEYS3emxB1gZWzYsmDpood13VeEDw6ea-Zn-gQMMCqzmKvsJPliU1qWpXg9mP6c6S/s320/echo+I.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Echo I</td></tr></tbody></table><ul><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">an American U-2 spy plane was shot down over Russia and its pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was imprisoned there</span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">young Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) won the gold medal in the light heavyweight competition at the Summer Olympics in Rome</span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Harper Lee's <i>To Kill a Mockingbird</i> and John Updike's <i>Rabbit, Run</i> were published</span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">NASA launched the first communications satellite, Echo I, into space</span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the first working laser was built by American T. H. Maiman</span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">#1 hit songs of that year included the Everly Brothers' "Cathy's Clown," The Drifters' "Save the Last Dance for Me" and Percy Faith's version of the theme from <i>A Summer Place</i></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">on TV, Western series ruled the ratings, with <i>Gunsmoke</i>, <i>Wagon Train</i> and <i>Have Gun Will Travel</i> ranked one, two and three for the year</span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Camelot</i>, starring Richard Burton, Julie Andrews and Robert Goulet, debuted on Broadway</span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">John F. Kennedy was elected the 35th President of the United States</span></span></li></ul><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></span><br /><a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As the new decade dawned and the U.S. prepared to embark on a <a href="http://www.ushistory.org/us/56b.asp" style="color: #cc0000;" target="_blank">New Frontier</a>, Hollywood was in a state of flux, still reeling from the impact of television on movie attendance. Alfred Hitchcock, whose films since 1954 had been almost exclusively Technicolor/Vistavision dazzlers featuring top stars, shocked audiences and critics with the psychological thriller <i>Psycho</i>. Filmed in black and white, with TV production values and just one bankable star who is killed off in the first half-hour, <i>Psycho </i>was the highest grossing film for that year in the U.S. None of the top ten box office hits of 1960 were musical films. Two musicals did surface in the year's top twenty, Vincente Minnelli's <i>Bells are Ringing </i>with Judy Holliday and the George Cukor-directed Marilyn Monroe vehicle, <i>Let's Make Love</i>.</span></span><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg60Hlb_JruztnhXgfkYvOsID1Z0P0Wf_IQDqK2Gu1EfOd7g_Eid-s4VVLGskucNgNLzPH240pPEoESAbt4NbATIdIY0ikcKkPX5grVckdwyGv7jjhnCHzhdARBDmUl_gtjIbCET0AT9uV3/s1600/les+girls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg60Hlb_JruztnhXgfkYvOsID1Z0P0Wf_IQDqK2Gu1EfOd7g_Eid-s4VVLGskucNgNLzPH240pPEoESAbt4NbATIdIY0ikcKkPX5grVckdwyGv7jjhnCHzhdARBDmUl_gtjIbCET0AT9uV3/s320/les+girls.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mitzi Gaynor, Kay Kendall, Gene Kelly and Taina Elg - <i>Les Girls</i></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Gene Kelly had made his last musical for MGM, the studio with which his name and career are forever intertwined, in 1957<i>. </i>The film was <i>Les Girls</i>, a vibrant extravaganza directed by George Cukor, co-starring Mitzi Gaynor, Kay Kendall and Taina Elg. Cukor was unhappy about Gaynor in the leading lady role ("one of MGM's flat tires") and with the prospect of Helen Rose designing costumes. He had to live with Gaynor but insisted on Orry-Kelly for costumes and the designer went on to win an Oscar for his work.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Kelly's next film, the drama <i>Marjorie Morningstar </i>(1958), teamed him with a nearly grown-up Natalie Wood. Later that year he would return to Broadway and direct the original production of <i>The Flower Drum Song</i>, a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical that went on to garner six Tony Award nominations and to win one.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With the musical film genre on the wane, Kelly happily accepted an invitation early in 1960 from A.M. Julien of the </span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">the Paris Opéra and Opéra-Comique and travelled to Paris to devise a modern ballet for the company. While in France Kelly made a quick trip back to the States to appear in George Cukor's latest film-in-progress.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>The Billionaire</i>, a romantic comedy/musical was offered to Marilyn Monroe by producer Jerry Wald of 20th Century Fox. Though it had been hoped Billy Wilder would direct, he was already working on <i>The Apartment </i>(1960). And so the package Wald brought to Marilyn and that she accepted included director George Cukor, screenwriter Norman Krasna and co-star Gregory Peck. The film's slight premise followed the shenanigans of a billionaire (Peck) who discovers that an Off-Broadway revue spoofing him is in the works. When he surreptitiously attends a rehearsal of the show, its star (Monroe) mistakes him for an actor on audition. The billionaire falls for the cabaret star and decides he must learn to be a nightclub performer so he can join the act and woo her. Incidentally, since he is a billionaire and can afford the best possible tutors, he eventually hires three of great expertise - Milton Berle to instruct him in the art of comedy, Bing Crosby to help him learn to sing and Gene Kelly to teach him dance moves.</span></span><br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqp-ITsawz_D3DYD_9VOha2Ue9nOe35C21OjYMnfkJHSEeZVdZN5N5rQzb-Z8bWpNq1yDl5_0EL7Zb-4Q-u1R3V-mfixa23Sg9L7s0rbTKCpS9h84KoLfWDTmsjsa1a7w7G1BToIhLxK5O/s1600/An-Evening-with-Yves-Montand-Playbill-10-59.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqp-ITsawz_D3DYD_9VOha2Ue9nOe35C21OjYMnfkJHSEeZVdZN5N5rQzb-Z8bWpNq1yDl5_0EL7Zb-4Q-u1R3V-mfixa23Sg9L7s0rbTKCpS9h84KoLfWDTmsjsa1a7w7G1BToIhLxK5O/s320/An-Evening-with-Yves-Montand-Playbill-10-59.jpg" width="230" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Playbill</i>, 1959</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Just as the production got underway, the Writers Guild went on strike. Because there were script problems, this was a major setback. To keep the project moving, Jerry Wald approached Marilyn's husband, playwright Arthur Miller, offering him the job of developing and rewriting the script. Miller, surprisingly, broke ranks with the striking writers and agreed, quickly delivering revisions. Wald then sent Miller's script directly to Gregory Peck who, alarmed at the extent to which Marilyn's role had been enlarged, balked and asked to be released from his role as the titular billionaire. Many actors were mentioned, but French singer/actor Yves Montand, who had lately taken Broadway by storm with his one-man show, won the part; he would make his American film debut in the film now titled <i>Let's Make Love</i>.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">As with each of Marilyn Monroe's late-career films, there would be problems on the set. Though the star was coming off a smash hit film, the one considered the best of her career, Billy Wilder's <i>Some Like it Hot </i>(1959), she was in trouble. According to her half-sister, Berniece Miracle, "It was in 1960 that Marilyn began to come completely apart." She believed the drugs Marilyn had initially taken to relax and get to sleep "had turned against her," affecting her moods and ability to work.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Though George Cukor struggled mightily to keep filming on track, the production fell expensively behind schedule. Arthur Miller was called back for further rewrites. And the powers at Fox, mystified by her capricious demands, began to believe that Marilyn was actually mad. As if there wasn't enough chaos, Marilyn created a public scandal by openly carrying on an affair with Yves Montand, whose wife, Simone Signoret, had just won the Oscar for Best Actress.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In the midst of this commotion, Gene Kelly made the 6,000 mile flight from Paris to Hollywood to film his cameo for the picture. Arriving on a Sunday night, he filmed for two hours with Montand on Monday and departed for Paris and his ballet project on Tuesday. Quickly in and out, his may have been the best experience of anyone on the film.</span></span><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5LM9QI0EsWZUKqU4FG3or8vdiIhJLCvxiLRrqbgLzPmTxdVDVrND5LqdnQtUhBeIFUsBJclX4JmF0SIyxD-fbI73ey4zsjXxA0SRTGGvf2J1Op0YUXEl6pJlCCCpSJJJlHV4a_bxYl7jB/s1600/LML+Montand+Marilyn+and+Kelly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5LM9QI0EsWZUKqU4FG3or8vdiIhJLCvxiLRrqbgLzPmTxdVDVrND5LqdnQtUhBeIFUsBJclX4JmF0SIyxD-fbI73ey4zsjXxA0SRTGGvf2J1Op0YUXEl6pJlCCCpSJJJlHV4a_bxYl7jB/s320/LML+Montand+Marilyn+and+Kelly.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yves Montand, Marilyn Monroe and Gene Kelly on the set</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>Let's Make Love </i>opened to great fanfare in September 1960. 20th Century Fox slyly used the Monroe/Montand affair to generate publicity and the crowds turned out - taking the film to #17 among 1960's U.S. box office hits. How audiences managed to sit through the film's first hour is hard to fathom. <i>Let's Make Love</i> gets off to a painfully long, slow start and never gains enough momentum to stir much interest. The cameos of Berle, Crosby and Kelly are highlights, and Montand's charms emerge, at last, during the final 20 minutes or so. But, though the film was promoted with the (silly) tagline, "It's dedicated to the <b>NEW</b> Monroe Doctrine!", Marilyn, whose physical appearance thankfully improves over the course of the film, conjures nothing so much as a careworn rendition of a character that, by now, had become a clich</span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">é. It is saddening to watch an actress, a great and gifted star, who had so wished to be taken seriously, wriggle, writhe and whisper her way through the film. Character icons Tony Randall and Wilfred Hyde-White are wasted in a muddle that might best be described, to use a term of the time, as "dullsville."</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Gene Kelly's 45-minute jazz ballet, <i>Pas de Dieux</i>, was a great success in Paris. His next film, the critically acclaimed, Oscar-nominated Stanley Kramer drama, <i>Inherit the Wind</i>, was released just a few month after <i>Let's Make Love</i>. He would remain busy throughout the 1960s - appearing in the 1962 - 1963 TV series, <i>Going My Way</i>, the 1964 Fox musical comedy/romance, <i>What a Way to Go! </i>with Shirley MacLaine (in a role originally intended for Marilyn Monroe) and the imaginative Jacques Demy musical, <i>Les demoiselles de Rochefort </i>(1967) with Catherine Deneuve and her equally beautiful (now long-lost) sister, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.newwavefilm.com/french-new-wave-encyclopedia/francoise-dorleac.shtml" style="color: #cc0000;" target="_blank">Françoise Dorléac</a>. The decade would also bring Kelly opportunities to direct - the poignant Jackie Gleason vehicle <i>Gigot </i>(1962), the comedy hit <i>A Guide for the Married Man </i>(1967) starring Walter Matthau and the musical <i>Hello, Dolly! </i>(1969) starring Barbra Streisand.</span></span><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK6Hw55rWYpT1Q52DHdemKfYs4gfEPe1az3_-4vVMpJ_cP9CrCU55X1H-Ft3hB1VoIadFBi59sbnXosEyr5iNusCrbyuzSfD9qUPsp_nhyAMpmptdh_MObT59MKNMDE76CHjf6nHo2nsg1/s1600/kelly+and+doreleac.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK6Hw55rWYpT1Q52DHdemKfYs4gfEPe1az3_-4vVMpJ_cP9CrCU55X1H-Ft3hB1VoIadFBi59sbnXosEyr5iNusCrbyuzSfD9qUPsp_nhyAMpmptdh_MObT59MKNMDE76CHjf6nHo2nsg1/s400/kelly+and+doreleac.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gene Kelly and<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Françoise Dorlé</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">ac in <i>Les demoiselles de Rochefort</i></span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">  ~ </span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">  </span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Turner Classic Movies honors Gene Kelly's centenary birthday today, August 23, with 24 hours of his films as part of its annual <i>Summer Under the Stars </i>celebration in August. <a href="http://www.tcm.com/summer/#/gene-kelly" style="color: #cc0000;" target="_blank">Click here</a> to learn more...And <a href="http://sittinonabackyardfence.com/2012/08/23/day-23-gene-kelly/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=day-23-gene-kelly" style="color: #cc0000;" target="_blank">click here</a> for links to blogs participating in Michael and Jill's <i>Summer Under the Stars </i>blogathon on Gene Kelly's day.</span></span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">~</span></span></div><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><u><b>Sources</b></u>:</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>Marilyn Monroe </i>by Barbara Leaming, Crown (1998)</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>George Cukor: Master of Elegance</i> by Emanuel Levy, William Morrow & Co. (1994) </span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span>

Gene Kelly George Cukor Let's Make Love Marilyn Monroe The Lady Eve (author) Yves Montand Gene Kelly's Brief Sojourn, "Let's Make Love" (1960)

The Classic Movie Blog Association is sponsoring the Gene Kelly Centennial Blogathon from August 20 - 25 and this is my contribution to the ...

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50 Years Ago Today, in Hollywood...

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg58oHxhOAMg8E1nt1F6qVdfKcDIYxrRZveONpR-GcDOTAQaWJ3gmAFOfL4efNQZZE_-7o2caeOyaE0VAYzKIrz4DHhOuQs2P-O-X3l62Wuc0AkO2DHUczOYbUPjUhF3AflWHROlSljZs2f/s1600/mm+tests+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg58oHxhOAMg8E1nt1F6qVdfKcDIYxrRZveONpR-GcDOTAQaWJ3gmAFOfL4efNQZZE_-7o2caeOyaE0VAYzKIrz4DHhOuQs2P-O-X3l62Wuc0AkO2DHUczOYbUPjUhF3AflWHROlSljZs2f/s400/mm+tests+3.jpg" width="350" /></a></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Marilyn Monroe was scheduled to work on <i>Something’s Got to Give</i>, a George Cukor film in production for 20th Century Fox, on June 1, 1962, her 36^th birthday. That Marilyn arrived on the set on time and worked all day, managing to complete scenes with leading man Dean Martin and co-star Wally Cox, was a cause for celebration in itself, considering Marilyn had worked on only a handful of the film’s 30+ days in production. At the end of the day, a birthday party was thrown on the set featuring a cake festooned with sparklers and Marilyn's favorite champagne, Dom Perignon. Afterward Marilyn attended a charity baseball game at Dodger Stadium and was serenaded with a chorus of “Happy Birthday” during the event.</span><br /><br /><a name='more'></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw_Oc9F0JTQzPuprDzN2r922BvHtShXMOvbsjVP-xymo0MDQNlPGh2EEICAM8Izg5zYKmumJUNX79_66nHPSdNPPVbilXwfeio4ZlKA0X5dLplRML08pOaMgxc_XyHWe16dPHlc7w5QHXo/s1600/Marilyn+at+36.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw_Oc9F0JTQzPuprDzN2r922BvHtShXMOvbsjVP-xymo0MDQNlPGh2EEICAM8Izg5zYKmumJUNX79_66nHPSdNPPVbilXwfeio4ZlKA0X5dLplRML08pOaMgxc_XyHWe16dPHlc7w5QHXo/s400/Marilyn+at+36.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marilyn turns 36</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg03du69oj1DOlTTd_GafssPAYSUaS95dxK65zErq43KOwpmqV-mzUkNDnrW4kP1CPXoQyrEEDS7USxp6poipz2606i85jnRrv11FnH2WHkyo-ADn0McPb-mMuMoH1o4Isx7MGNrIzADmDP/s1600/MM+baseball+game.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg03du69oj1DOlTTd_GafssPAYSUaS95dxK65zErq43KOwpmqV-mzUkNDnrW4kP1CPXoQyrEEDS7USxp6poipz2606i85jnRrv11FnH2WHkyo-ADn0McPb-mMuMoH1o4Isx7MGNrIzADmDP/s320/MM+baseball+game.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dodger Stadium, June 1, 1962</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;">The next morning, Saturday, June 2, a distraught Marilyn called the home of her vacationing psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson, and asked his children to come over. There they found her in bed, disheveled and inconsolable. According to Greenson’s son, Daniel, Marilyn rattled off a long list of complaints, concluding with the comment that her life wasn’t worth living. A colleague of Dr. Greenson’s, Dr. Milton Wexler, was summoned and he quickly appropriated the arsenal of sedatives he found in her room. It was later determined that Marilyn’s behavior was likely triggered by an overdose of Dexamyl, an anti-depressant.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Marilyn did not appear on the set of <i>Something’s Got to Give</i> the following Monday, and when her attorney, Mickey Rudin, tried to persuade her to return to work, she became furious and accused him of siding with the studio. Rudin, who was also her psychiatrist’s brother in law, contacted Dr. Greenson who was still in on holiday in Europe and the doctor agreed to fly home at once.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">On Tuesday, June 5, Marilyn stayed home from work again. Dean Martin reportedly walked off the set in frustration and the production was temporarily suspended. An emergency meeting was called for Wednesday the 6^th at Fox with both Dr. Greenson and Rudin in attendance. The studio was not convinced that either could guarantee that Marilyn would be able to finish the film and finally made a decision that had long been considered – she would be replaced. And so, 50 years ago today, on Friday, June 8, 1962, it was announced that Marilyn Monroe had been fired from <i>Something's Got to Give</i>.</span></span><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj84_AtdG8pN2pT60OkOGwBoCmpSB4NNsnoNXq9-PwunTcpNc4LPaZ_Oy7OgtITCBzsspyIXWdrxpZL2I-Dir4wnpIkCGiAuNPkItecADgl72xMWGhoM4dA-lfrfi3UptTuoXbnupwZHu7u/s1600/Lee+Remick.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj84_AtdG8pN2pT60OkOGwBoCmpSB4NNsnoNXq9-PwunTcpNc4LPaZ_Oy7OgtITCBzsspyIXWdrxpZL2I-Dir4wnpIkCGiAuNPkItecADgl72xMWGhoM4dA-lfrfi3UptTuoXbnupwZHu7u/s320/Lee+Remick.jpg" width="252" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lee Remick</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">When Lee Remick was hired to replace her, Dean Martin responded, "I have the greatest respect for Miss Remick and her talent and for all other actresses who were considered for the role, but I signed to do the picture with Marilyn Monroe, and I will do it with no one else."</span></span><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNIBOuNJ6l5hxyxQEuhOLHEV52ElUp_K4S2pXMIZt9zyBGmuYwM9XaFtC1km_4l2O4eAn990PQGiopfJ7BiFOkUR0RwToLWHGeXuCwuSAqX0MM4fTUc1DgnvHODrvOWUee7UyuxGn3yckD/s1600/MM+and+DM+SGTG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNIBOuNJ6l5hxyxQEuhOLHEV52ElUp_K4S2pXMIZt9zyBGmuYwM9XaFtC1km_4l2O4eAn990PQGiopfJ7BiFOkUR0RwToLWHGeXuCwuSAqX0MM4fTUc1DgnvHODrvOWUee7UyuxGn3yckD/s320/MM+and+DM+SGTG.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dean Martin and Marilyn Monroe during the making of <i>Something's Got to Give</i></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">George Cukor, who also directed Marilyn in <i>Let's Make Love</i> (1960), later remarked, "I liked her very much. I found her extremely intelligent - inarticulate, but extremely intelligent. And driven. She was a very peculiar girl...There may be an exact psychiatric term for what was wrong with her, I don't know - but truth to tell, I think she was quite mad."</span></span><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrzxqilvsU2-e_m0XwI9XoQtG2T80za8IO4znARN-tC0hEVO-ecJJhnbL09ot70MRMkw3aEPMW9Pue5GOdqpn6HAZgoHRYDJ0HNWtMnP2WPu0a7Gns37bk5sa6Cx46xmmcTt4woozW35Fd/s1600/MM+and+Cukor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrzxqilvsU2-e_m0XwI9XoQtG2T80za8IO4znARN-tC0hEVO-ecJJhnbL09ot70MRMkw3aEPMW9Pue5GOdqpn6HAZgoHRYDJ0HNWtMnP2WPu0a7Gns37bk5sa6Cx46xmmcTt4woozW35Fd/s1600/MM+and+Cukor.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Director George Cukor with Marilyn on the set</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Eventually the picture, a remake of the Cary Grant/Irene Dunne classic, <i>My Favorite Wife</i> (1940), was produced - but with a different director, cast and title. <i>Move Over, Darling</i> starring Doris Day and James Garner was released on Christmas 1963.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></span></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrYMUSnjVJe48qy2deBtBcIMBAe4Kny_Wn-NJRzQrDwvUJ_XXg44gu6bCFwizZtzj1sED1nAObiocE3CvIBHixpmR4u5pgwPM_tKkm6J-G1wWJZbDH7icjgtmpHNOhst7HcrLj5GjaupgU/s1600/Doris+Day+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrYMUSnjVJe48qy2deBtBcIMBAe4Kny_Wn-NJRzQrDwvUJ_XXg44gu6bCFwizZtzj1sED1nAObiocE3CvIBHixpmR4u5pgwPM_tKkm6J-G1wWJZbDH7icjgtmpHNOhst7HcrLj5GjaupgU/s320/Doris+Day+2.jpg" width="260" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Doris Day</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>

Dean Martin Doris Day George Cukor Lee Remick Marilyn Monroe Something's Got to Give Wally Cox 50 Years Ago Today, in Hollywood...

Marilyn Monroe was scheduled to work on Something’s Got to Give , a George Cukor film in production for 20th Century Fox, on June 1, 1962, h...

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Marlene Dietrich Gets Personal in Charlotte Chandler's New Biography

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWqT5xMUzvfuoskrE1oYJZirvPmMu4Lx_nJnfzUY9cE2Gnwe4Ov-4d054059j5CkCqzmKPL6eMuqt3yW0zKgce3exOYyhlDiAgAvguW_rZgNqbsPTPQ6VkYJlBcszzbJyUGQOj0xRedQOY/s1600/dietrich-hat-desire+a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="313" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWqT5xMUzvfuoskrE1oYJZirvPmMu4Lx_nJnfzUY9cE2Gnwe4Ov-4d054059j5CkCqzmKPL6eMuqt3yW0zKgce3exOYyhlDiAgAvguW_rZgNqbsPTPQ6VkYJlBcszzbJyUGQOj0xRedQOY/s400/dietrich-hat-desire+a.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Prolific biographer Charlotte Chandler has written on the life of a different film legend every year for the past 6 years, beginning with <u>It's Only a Movie: Alfred Hitchcock</u> in 2005. Her latest, <u>Marlene</u>, has just been published by Simon & Schuster.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC3BHcYpOMMpE1XztFTKE__nggcm-5u8r3uHCwTgstg3c9O9YwnG3Yfew58sRnWlhecngnKdR_d8TafFnV7gbEyqvKCxXVYFrvlDfzIPa7MlW7DSSaAqzZaGKw0TpVDuNP1nsbrHzQlrAm/s1600/400000000000000350608_s4%255B1%255D.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC3BHcYpOMMpE1XztFTKE__nggcm-5u8r3uHCwTgstg3c9O9YwnG3Yfew58sRnWlhecngnKdR_d8TafFnV7gbEyqvKCxXVYFrvlDfzIPa7MlW7DSSaAqzZaGKw0TpVDuNP1nsbrHzQlrAm/s200/400000000000000350608_s4%255B1%255D.png" width="130" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Chandler's biographies are based on personal interviews. She includes filmography and career details, but her style is to convey the story of a life in the first-person as much as possible, using the subject's own words. This conversational approach gives the reader a sense of being in the room, listening in, as the story of a remarkable life unfolds. </span><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSaDCSVfKbkQExeQ0-EszJ2y8RaiB2Mu1DLVYoUq_HbEh_h4AHCHxylY6yxxmhliLa7muNx4EGcy4zZRrak2MERtimQgDdnYgBiswWahtXJjdo6ppp-iJYM3ghG-w1WQdipq_NSA29H7B7/s1600/groucho.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSaDCSVfKbkQExeQ0-EszJ2y8RaiB2Mu1DLVYoUq_HbEh_h4AHCHxylY6yxxmhliLa7muNx4EGcy4zZRrak2MERtimQgDdnYgBiswWahtXJjdo6ppp-iJYM3ghG-w1WQdipq_NSA29H7B7/s1600/groucho.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Groucho Marx</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">The author's career as a biographer began with <u>Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho and His Friends</u> in 1978. Written during Marx's lifetime but published not long after his death, it became a bestseller. Chandler returned to the genre years later with her 1995 Fellini biography, <u>I, Fellini</u>. But it was with her first book for Simon & Schuster in 2002, <u>Nobody's Perfect: Billy Wilder</u>, that Charlotte Chandler’s biographies became frequent and consistently titled, each with the annotation "A Personal Biography."</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Who is Charlotte Chandler? Her Simon & Schuster bio is sketchy - we are told that she has written many bios, lives in New York and is on the board of the Film Society of Lincoln Center. The back cover of <u>Hello, I Must Be Going</u> includes a picture of Chandler with Groucho who sits at a piano. Her biography of Alfred Hitchcock contains photos of Chandler with the director as well as his daughter, Pat. The dust jackets of Chandler’s biographies are strewn with the praise of film world luminaries: Isabella Rossellini, Michael Caine, Jack Nicholson, Pat Hitchcock, director Michelangelo Antonioni, producer David Brown and others. <i>Vanity Fair</i>, which has published excerpts of many of her books, proclaims that Chandler “sets the gold standard for celeb bios.”</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">In a recent interview with <i>Kirkus Reviews</i>, Chandler was asked how she managed to gain access to so many of the most famous, and often famously difficult, stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age. About Groucho Marx she recalled that someone had given her his phone number, she called and, though Groucho refused to be interviewed, he invited Chandler to dinner. Then, over dinner, Groucho asked why she hadn't been taking notes on their conversation. It was Groucho who later introduced her to Billy Wilder.  </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Henri Langlois, film archivist and founder of the Cinématheque Française, introduced Chandler to Hitchcock, Mary Meerson, also of the Cinématheque Française, introduced her to Dietrich, director George Cukor introduced her to Katharine Hepburn…and Bette Davis, ever the formidable outlier, called Chandler herself, the only one of the author's subjects to do so.</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">  </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4qSAXmtoGpmHW2Szn3_pMWZwm7n299CRgkecQ6jm5fQx4n_KqIHpAoy0_FF_iPmIlGifHA1uKvZaWK_uFg1emIvW7IFxUAyKXxjGkFXHZLc3QL9ppE4Ui1KLFBpFQXb3x6ybmbT8Jt8dB/s1600/Douglas+Fairbanks+jr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4qSAXmtoGpmHW2Szn3_pMWZwm7n299CRgkecQ6jm5fQx4n_KqIHpAoy0_FF_iPmIlGifHA1uKvZaWK_uFg1emIvW7IFxUAyKXxjGkFXHZLc3QL9ppE4Ui1KLFBpFQXb3x6ybmbT8Jt8dB/s1600/Douglas+Fairbanks+jr.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Connections abound between Chandler's subjects, most of whom knew and worked with each other, and occasionally one story will overlap into another. For example, Marlene Dietrich and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. had an affair that lasted for years, and the gentleman had many memories of her. He told Chandler about a series of miniature nudes he sculpted of Marlene and how he eventually decapitated all of them to protect her reputation in the event of his demise. This anecdote is told in detail in the Dietrich biography. It is also woven into the Hitchcock biography, in abridged form, in a section on <b>Stage Fright</b>.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Fairbanks was the friend of many film legends and a substantial resource for Chandler; he is quoted in each of the biographies of hers that I’ve read (Bette Davis, Dietrich, Katharine Hepburn, Hitchcock). Equally well-connected and forthcoming was George Cukor, who is quoted in the Davis, Hepburn and Hitchcock books. What I wouldn’t give to have access to the stack of notes and tapes Chandler must have made over the years…</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Charlotte Chandler met Marlene Dietrich in 1977, when the legendary star was 76 years old and living in Paris. Dietrich’s greeting to her future biographer was, “I don’t mind meeting you because you didn’t know me before, when I was young and very beautiful.” Moments later she added, “It can be a curse being beautiful, after a certain point, as it slips away…” </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiftABVvSa6MuXETbboSw_NLl5walI2PbAZvvMEn-em7QwoEWk0TunOb-ELtAfhM0CFKXid1sS2rpA_h0jixgNRtfvxx2ra-55ats9FW6xaz3NsyJwC39A8pRIhGNQ_rpvMrxHfoYvwDOlu/s1600/dietrich+in+the+40s+a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiftABVvSa6MuXETbboSw_NLl5walI2PbAZvvMEn-em7QwoEWk0TunOb-ELtAfhM0CFKXid1sS2rpA_h0jixgNRtfvxx2ra-55ats9FW6xaz3NsyJwC39A8pRIhGNQ_rpvMrxHfoYvwDOlu/s200/dietrich+in+the+40s+a.jpg" width="165" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dietrich in the 1940s</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">I have read and watched much about Marlene Dietrich, from her memoirs (<u>Marlene</u>, 1990), to various biographies, including her daughter Maria's lurid opus, to Josef von Sternberg’s eccentric autobiography (<u>Fun in a Chinese Laundry</u>, 1965), the page on the CIA’s website about Dietrich’s work during World War II and Maximillian Schell’s Oscar-nominated documentary (<b>Marlene</b>, 1984). I have to admit that I had something of a “tell me something I don’t know” attitude before I sat down with Chandler’s book. She did.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">There are revelations large and small of all kinds...Dietrich's mad plot to kill Hitler, details of her introduction to Ernest Hemingway on the <i>Île de France</i><i>,</i> the lie she told JFK about his father...Dietrich's memory of her grandmother’s lavender eyes, her habit of giving her hand-me-downs to husband Rudi's mistress...her hatred of knitting because it reminded her of World War I in Germany.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Chandler knows how to set a scene and tell a story. She nimbly leads the reader through Dietrich’s early years, the arc of her career, her personal life and into her late years, when she “closed the door” and retreated inside the rooms of her small apartment across from the Hôtel Plaza Athénée in Paris. Among the many voices heard of those who knew Dietrich at different points in her life and career are her one-time arranger and accompanist, Burt Bacharach and her friend and fellow Paramount star, Mae West.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">  <br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkhV2cJInf9Udbh8Z_2zmrVzwEeYEY-Vlq0i62zRFoPOaTjzAM_Ffb-4aa31veQDBcJdByUoQa0JLCzeM2plQrvrF88jpAjpT0Vghly50GGSSmjJjGuTrRNmIs6PVaUWqCuR2_m0ySXt5a/s1600/dietrich+%2526+maria+50s+a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkhV2cJInf9Udbh8Z_2zmrVzwEeYEY-Vlq0i62zRFoPOaTjzAM_Ffb-4aa31veQDBcJdByUoQa0JLCzeM2plQrvrF88jpAjpT0Vghly50GGSSmjJjGuTrRNmIs6PVaUWqCuR2_m0ySXt5a/s320/dietrich+%2526+maria+50s+a.jpg" width="217" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maria and Marlene, early '50s</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Maria Riva is Dietrich's only child, and Riva's own sensationalistic 787 page version of her mother's life was published shortly after Dietrich's death. Maria is not a direct source for Chandler's book but her youngest son David, who produced and directed a documentary on Dietrich in 2001, speaks at length. His references to his mother as an "Emmy-winning actress" caught my eye - I'd not heard this before and checked the Emmy website. Maria is listed as having been nominated for a Best Actress Emmy in 1952 and 1953. However, Imogene Coca won in 1952 and Helen Hayes won in 1953.</span></span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Charlotte Chandler remarked to <i>Kirkus Reviews</i> that Marlene Dietrich had originally been perceived as "another Garbo" very early in her Hollywood career. It happened that <span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Dietrich came to Hollywood as talkies were coming in and MGM was carefully transitioning Garbo, its great star, to sound. When <b>Morocco </b>and <b>The Blue Angel </b>struck box office gold, Paramount saw in Dietrich its opportunity to trump MGM and Garbo. The two actresses were to have distinctly different careers, though both were deemed "box office poison" (along with Katharine Hepburn and others) in the late '30s. However, no one imagined that Dietrich’s film career would outlast Garbo’s (or anyone else's) by several decades or that she would successfully reinvent herself as a high-ticket stage performer.</span></span></span></span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Chandler told <i>Kirkus</i> that though she didn't interview her, she did meet Garbo. Her impression was that Garbo was too bitter about the past to make a good interview. Asked if she thought Dietrich also became bitter, Chandler responded, “not at all. She loved what happened to her," adding that Dietrich hadn’t expected any of it and “she felt she owed her great life to Josef von Sternberg,” her mentor and the director of seven of her most memorable films.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I enjoy Charlotte Chandler's uniquely readable biographies. I've read more heavily documented books (the fascinating Barry Paris tome on Louise Brooks comes to mind) and books concerned almost solely with a life on film </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">(David Thomson's excellent "Great Stars" series entry on Bette Davis), but for a pleasurable foray into legendary firsthand memories, Chandler is hard to beat.</span><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij7H9ALMGn0pRU7mjtGXaYrarl7UnuIQTFEqAcXQ-ZJ-cqDcd_vHLZxMvob51LLzGw6nhIZjPJvzut3AASBown_4DEyb7WQnQQu9Yonv2I2UX6Im0oMRdJ0FTpCevgQMCInJ59MG4Ls98/s1600/Marlene+sculpture+by+Hanford.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij7H9ALMGn0pRU7mjtGXaYrarl7UnuIQTFEqAcXQ-ZJ-cqDcd_vHLZxMvob51LLzGw6nhIZjPJvzut3AASBown_4DEyb7WQnQQu9Yonv2I2UX6Im0oMRdJ0FTpCevgQMCInJ59MG4Ls98/s400/Marlene+sculpture+by+Hanford.JPG" width="258" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marlene Dietrich sculpture by <a href="http://dolls.clarkhanford.com/"><b>Clark Hanford</b></a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>Biographies by Charlotte Chandler</b>:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho and His Friends</u></span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u></u></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>I, Fellini</u></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>Nobody's Perfect: Billy Wilder, A Personal Biography</u></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>It's Only a Movie: Alfred Hitchcock, A Personal Biography</u></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>The Girl Who Walked Home Alone: Bette Davis, A Personal Biography</u></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>Ingrid: Ingrid Bergman, A Personal Biography</u></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>Not the Girl Next Door: Joan Crawford, A Personal Biography</u></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>She Always Knew How: Mae West, A Personal Biography</u></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><u>I Know Where I'm Going: Katharine Hepburn, A Personal Biography</u></span><br /><u><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">Marlene: Marlene Dietrich, A Personal Biography</span></u><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"><i>Thanks to Simon & Schuster for a review copy of <u>Marlene</u></i></span></div>

Burt Bacharach Charlotte Chandler Classic Film and TV Cafe Douglas Fairbanks Jr. George Cukor Greta Garbo Groucho Marx Josef von Sternberg Mae West Marlene Dietrich The Lady Eve (author) Marlene Dietrich Gets Personal in Charlotte Chandler's New Biography

Prolific biographer Charlotte Chandler has written on the life of a different film legend every year for the past 6 years, beginning with It...

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